Machine for hardening knife-blades



H. BUCK.

MACHINE FOR HARDENING KNIFE BLADES.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.5.1919.

1,350,697. ented Aug- 24, 1920.

44 a SHEETSSHEET I.

j H/ s ATTORNEYS H; BOCK.

MACHINE FOR HARDENING KNIFE BLADES.

APPLICATION FILED DEC-5,1919.

1,350,697, Patented Aug. 24, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

)f ETTORNEYS H. BOOK.

MACHINE FOR HARDENING KNIFE BLADES.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 5. 919.

1 3 5 O, 6 97 Patented Aug. 24, 1920.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

0000000 0 o 0 0 0- 0 O 0 o 0 0 0 0 000000 og oOOooooo o o O O 0 0 00000000o0 00000000000 0 o 0 O 0 0000000000 000000000 00 0o 0 0 00000000000 00000000000 0 o o o 0 0000000000 00000000000 0 Q 0 o o o o-s oooooo 00000000000 00 0 0 00000000000 \A i BOC K, OF MER I DEN, CONNECTICUT.

MACHINE FOR HABDENING KNIFE-BLADES.

Application filed December 5, 1919.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that Lldnnwmiv Boon, a citi- Zen of the United States, residing at Meriden, in ,the county of Newl-Iaveri and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Mach ines for Hardening Knife-Blades, and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the characters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and enact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of ,this application, and represent, in v v Figure ,1, a plan view of a knife-blade hardening machine constructed in accordance with my invention. V i

Fig. 2, a View thereof in side elevation with its semi-circular flame-reflector in vertical central section.

Fig. 3, an enlarged detached broken plan view of the blade-carrying wheel.

Fig. 4, a corresponding edge view thereof, showing three knife-blades suspended therein.

Fig. 5, asectional view thereof on the line 55 of Fig. 3 with ,the pivotal blade-clamp removed but with a knife-blade engaged with an abutment-finger of the gage-ring.

F ig. .6, a detached plan view of one of .the blade-clamps.

Fig. 7, a view thereof side elevation.

Fig. '8, a view thereofin front elevation.

Fig. 9, a detached plan view of the gag ring.

Fig. 10, a detached broken plan view of one of the blade-clamp rods.

Fig. 11, a detached plan view ofthe semicircular burner.

Fig. 12, a view thereof and partly in section. V 1 V Fig. 13, a view thereof in transverse section on the line 1813 vof Fig. 12.

partly in elevation lVly invention relates to an improved machine for hardeningknifesblades and the like, the object being to provide for the purpose indicated a simple, compact and convenient machine having 'a large capacity for work and constructed with particular reference to avoiding the hardening of the bladeheels, whereby it becomes unnecessary to draw their temper prior to drilling and fitting them. 7

lVith these ends in View my invention consists in a knife-blade hardening machine having certain details of construction as Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Au 24., 1920 Serial No. 342,637.

will be hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims. 7 In carrying out my invention as herein shown, I employ a work or blade-carrying wheel 14 arranged to revolve in a horizontal plane and thereto mounted upon a vertical shaft 15, the lower end of which turns in a bearing 16 fastened to the machineframe 17 and the upper end of which ,turns in a bearing 18 in the end of the overhanging arm of a bracket 19' also secured to the machine-frame. The said shaft mounts a bevel gear 20 meshed into by a bevel pinion 21 at the inner end of a shaft 22 the outer end of which mounts a gear wheel 23 driven by a pinion 21 on a shaft 25, the outer end of which carries an idle pulley 26 and a driven pulley 27, whereby the wheel 14 is continuously rotated rather than having step-,by-step rotation imparted to it. v

The work or blade-carrying wheel 14 is formed at regular intervals in its periphery with rectangular radial work-receiving slots 28, all of which are intersected near their lower ends by a circumferential deep horizontal slot 29 extending inward to their inner walls as shown in F 5. Each of the slots 28 receives a pivotal bladeclamp having a body 30, an upstanding operating-arm 31 at the outer end thereof,and :1- depending clamping-face 32, the said body being perfo rated as at for the reception of a pivot 84 and perforated as at 35 to receive the outer end of a rod 36, the inner end of which is attached to the outer end of a spring 37 the inner end of which is attached to the hub 38 of the wheel as shown in Fig. 1. As will be seen by reference to Fig. 3, the bladeclamps are pivoted .to one side of the rcspective slots 28 in which they operate, the horizontal body-portions 80 of the clamps swinging in the horizontal slots 29 in the wheel 14. The slots in the wheel, the blade-clamps in the slots, the rods and the springs, as thus desrribed, are all radially arranged with respect ,to the axis of the wheel as shown in Fig. 1. Normally, the springs 3'7 hold the blade-clamps in their blade-gripping posi tions, as shown in Fig. 3 in which their clamping-faces 32 impinge upon the oppo site or forward side walls of the radial slots 29. For automatically opening the clamps in succession preparatory to feeding the knife-blades 39, Iemploy an initial clampopener 40 secured to the bracket-arm 19, as shown in Fig. 1, in such inclined position that as the wheel l l revolves the upstanding operatingarms 31 of the clamps will be successively engaged with it, whereby the clamps will be turned on their pivots against the tension of their springs 37 and thrown back into their open positions in which the slots 28 will be virtually cleared for the reception of the heels ll of the knife-blades. As the wheel revolves, the arms of the clamps will be carried past the clamp-opener v tempering oil, by means of a secondary inclined clamp-opener let secured by screws 45 to the machine-frame as shown-in Fig. 3.

The knifeblades 39 are manually inserted by an upward movement of the hand of the operator into the slots 28 in the wheel 14%, whereby the heels 41 of the blades are'located within the slots 28 and so prevented from being sufiiciently heated to be hardened when immersed in the oil in the tank. T0 gage the positioning of the knife-blades in the wheel, I employ a gage-ring a6 fitting over the upper portion of the periphery of the wheel and secured in place by screws 47. This ring is provided with as many inwardly-extending stop-fingers 4-8 as there are slots 28 in the wheel, these fingers extending into the said slots as shown in Fig. 5 and acting as abutments for the blade heels 41 so that the blades being inserted from beneath and lifted against the stopfingers 4-8 will all be heated uniformly. By providing each machine with an interchangeable set of gage-rings, varying in width, it is apparent that the extent to which the blade-heels lare inserted into the ring 14 may be regulated as desired.

As the wheelrevolves, the knife-blades depending from it, travel in a circular path through a segmental heating-passage l9,

formed between the convex rear face of a.

Wheel revolves, being exposed in their transit through this passage to the action of jets of gas flames issuing from'the burner tubes, but the wheel and the burner tubes are so positioned respectively that the flames are practically confined to impingement upon the knife-bladesproperand do not reach upward to the bladeheels which are partly confined at least within the slots of and protected by the blade-carrying wheel 14.

In the operation of my improved machine, the operator feeds the knife-blades into the constantly revolving wheel as the open slots therein are successively presented to him by its rotation and the successive opening of the blade-clamps. He momentarily holds the blades in the respective slots until the clamps are snapped into their gripping positions by passing by and so clearing the initial clamp-opener 39. The knife-blades thus suspended from the wheel, travel through the heating-passage 49 after which they are automatically released by the action of the secondary clamp-opener'l l' when they are dropped by gravity into the oil tank 43. The action of the wheel being continuous and the operator: being able to feed the knife-blades with great rapidity, the machine is given a large capacity for work. Moreover, the blade-heels arenot so heated that it is necessary to draw their temper for subsequently mounting and adjusting the blades. Furthermore, the machine is so open in character that it becomes unnecessary to resort to artificial means for cooling the carrying-wheel or any other part. It a great advantage to fractionally harden the blades in the sense that the blade-heels are not hardened as well as the blades proper, whereas generally in such machines the blades have to be uniformly hardened, necessitating drawing the temper of their heels for drilling them' and adjusting the blades when they are mounted in knife-handles. It will be understood that my machine though primarily designed for hardening knifeblades is not so limitedbut may be used equally well for other like hardening operations, a

I claim:

l. A hardening machine having a hori zontally arranged work-carrying wheel, pivotal, spring-actuated, work-holding clamps carried thereby and constructed and arrangedfor exposing the part of the work to be hardened below the lower face thereof; means for automatically opening the said clamps for inserting the work prior to heating, and releasing it after heating; and a semi-circular heating passage located below the plane of the lower face of thewheel in position to have the exposed lower portions of the work carried through it. f

2. A hardening machine having a hori zontally arranged work-carrying wheel the periphery of which is formed with radial work-receiving slots; spring-actuated, pivotal, work-holdlng clamps operating 111 the said slots for holding the work with the portions thereof to be hardened exposed below the plane of the lower face of the wheel; means for opening the said clamps for feed.- ing and for releasing the work; and a semicircular heating passage located below the plane of the lower face of the wheel in position to have the depending portions of the work passed. through it in the turning of the wheel.

3. A hardening machine having a horizontal work-carrying wheel formed in its and with a horizontal circumferential groove intersecting all of the said slots, a series of clamps pivoted in the said horizontal groove and swinging into said radial slots, means for operating the clamps to grip and to release the work and a heating-passage through which the blades are carried by the rotation of the wheel.

5. A hardening machine, having a horizontally arranged work-carrying wheel provided with peripheral work-receiving slots; pivotal, springactuated, workholding clamps mounted in the wheel and operating in the said slots to hold the work with the portion thereof to be hardened depending below the plane of the lower face of the wheel; means for predetermining the extent to which the work may be entered into the said slots and, therefore, its dependence below the wheel; means for operating the clamps for feeding the work into the wheel;

a semi-circular heating passage located below the plane of the lower face of the wheel by which the depending lower portions of the work are carried through the said passage; and means for operating the clamps for the discharge of the work from the wheel after being heated in the said passage.

6. A hardening machine having a horizontally arranged work-carrying wheel formed with peripheral, radial work-receiving slots, a series of work-clamps mounted in the wheel and corresponding in number to the said slots, means for initially opening the said clamps to permit the insertion of the work into the said slots, means for heating the work during the travel of the wheel, means for releasing the work from the said clamps after it has been heated, and means applied to the upper portion of the wheel for predetermining the extent to which the work may be inserted into the wheel and thus gaging those portions of the work which are not to be tempered.

'7. A hardening machine having a workcarrying wheel turning in a horizontal plane and formed in its periphery with radial work-receiving slots, work-clamps for the said slots, means for operating the said clamps in gripping and releasing the work, and a gage-ring applied to the upper portion of the wheel and provided with a series of inwardly extending stop-fingers entering the said slots and gaging the introduction of the work thereinto through the lower por tions of the slots.

8. A hardening machine having a work carrying wheel, means for mountingwork therein, and a heating-passage through which the work is carried by the wheel, the said passage being formed between the con vex face of a semicircular burner and the concaved' face of a corresponding flamereflector.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

HERMAN BOCK. Witnesses:

Fnnnnnro C. EARLE 7 J. HAROLD FLYNN. 

